The present invention is directed generally to the field of office automation, and in particular to a computer-based system for automating administrative procedures in a medical office. In accordance with particular embodiments of the invention disclosed herein, various administrative procedures that would otherwise require substantial manpower to complete are instead performed by an integrated computer system that performs those administrative procedures in an efficient, cost-effective manner. As a result, substantially less manpower is required to run a medical office, thereby reducing overhead costs.
It is well-recognized that the single largest expense in a medical office is personnel, and that the processing of documents generates the majority of the labor in a medical office. As service providers, however, physicians and medical office staff should ideally be spending their time on patient care, and not on document management. Time lost to administrative duties is all the more critical in view of the trend towards managed health care, leading to reduced medical fees but increased overhead costs.
There are literally hundreds of medical software applications available today. The majority of these applications deal with billing, scheduling, medical records, and most recently, outcome management. In addition, there are report generators, online services, and efforts to move towards a so-called “paperless office.” While such tools can be helpful, none of them directly address the most costly component of medical office overhead—labor hours.
There is therefore a need to reduce the manpower required to complete office administration tasks typically required in a medical office, such as tape transcription, chart preparation, report generation, and forms generation. Embodiments of the present invention meet that need.